We are very interested in the many species entering the park, we would love to know about your encounters with nature!

Los Angeles State Historic Park provides an extraordinary opportunity for recreation and education in the heart of Los Angeles. Within its 32 acres of open space directly adjacent to Chinatown, park visitors can wander pathways and enjoy a view of downtown, as well as discover and celebrate the natural and cultural heritage of Los Angeles.

In 2006 Hargreaves Associates (a San Francisco based landscape architecture firm) won a design competition held for Los Angeles State Historic Park. Their design concept demonstrated the possiblilites for a world-class park.

Also in 2006, California State Parks developed a temporary, 13-acre portion of the park so that the public could enjoy the park immediately. Since that time we have developed partnerships with educational institutions and community organizations to allow for creative and innovative public events. State Parks invites you to continue to engage in the past, present and future of Los Angeles at Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Things To Do

You can run, walk, ride a bike, have a picnic, fly a kite and even look for urban wildlife such as birds traveling down the Pacific flyway. Do all of these things and more while inventive architectural features in the landscape hint of the park’s history. The Metro Gold Line zips past the south side of the park on raised tracks following the course of a water system that stretched from the Los Angeles River to El Pueblo in the early 1800s. It may be difficult to imagine, but this place was once a fertile basin, and within a mile of the park is the last recorded location of Yang-na, a large Tongva village. The history of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s River Station, opened in 1875, includes a waterwheel, freight house, roundhouse, depot and station yard. Rows of deer grass now hint of the vanished railroad tracks, and you can stand and reflect on the travels of the thousands of people who arrived here from all over the country and world. The Pacific Hotel opened here in 1879 and once served “25 minute meals” to River Station passengers. The approximate shape of the hotel is marked today by a boundary of recycled glass.

Several historical buildings are within walking distance of the park. On the north side, the Flat Iron Building is the second oldest industrial building standing in Los Angeles and dates from 1890. On the southern end of the park, the Capitol Milling Company building from 1883 is easily visible. Surrounding the Park are the historic and ethnically diverse communities of Lincoln Heights, Elysian Park, Solano Canyon, Chinatown, Chavez Ravine and William Mead Homes. less ↑